A team of Texans has created molecules in their own image. The tiny army of human lookalikes is helping Houston kids to learn about chemistry, reports Nature.com. The researchers call their molecules the NanoKids. Their bodies are made from carbon and hydrogen, and their eyes are oxygen atoms. Each stands just 2 nanometres tall, a billion times shorter than the average man. "We have whole communities of them living in glass jars in the lab," says team leader James Tour of Rice University in Houston. Most people are bewildered by chemical structures, Tour explains - humanizing them makes them easier to grasp. "We talk about arms and legs, rather than alkyne and acetyl groups," he says. The team used small, commercially available molecules to produce their progeny. The torsos are benzene rings - hexagons of carbon atoms. The researchers use iodide ions to attach the limbs, which are made of carbon and hydrogen. The figures' heads are made of alcohols. The first NanoKids were born in May 2001. Now, with a few chemical tweaks, the family has a grown. There are stubby-legged NanoBabies, long-haired NanoTeens and bendy NanoDancers. Adding sulphur to the NanoKids' feet enables them to stand up - albeit only on gold. The two elements bind strongly, allowing some ten trillion NanoKids to line up on a metal platform the size of a postage stamp. Full article here.